Coaching friends will become foes on Wednesday when CF Montreal host the Columbus Crew at Saputo Stadium in the first of a series of MLS midweek affairs.
Le CFM squandered an early lead versus Inter Miami on Saturday, losing 3-2 and falling to 12th in the Eastern Conference, three points below the reigning league champions, who are eighth following a 2-1 loss at home to FC Cincinnati.
Match preview
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Montreal had a chance to make a massive statement by defeating Miami twice in the regular season, but instead, the wheels fell off after a sparkling opening 32 minutes this past weekend.
It was the second time in successive MLS home contests that they had failed to hang onto an early lead in what was their first defeat at Saputo Stadium this year.
This team have not suffered successive defeats at home in this competition since July 2023, while scoring in their last six regular season games played in Montreal.
Laurent Courtois knows the Crew well, having served as their academy coach from 2019-2021 before being in charge of Crew 2 in MLS Next Pro and guiding them to the title in 2022.
He helped develop many of the players currently flourishing with the first team and was named the MLS Next Pro Coach of the Year in 2022.
CF Montreal are winless in their last four encounters versus the Crew and have not beaten them at home since they were known as the Montreal Impact in 2019 (1-0).
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Columbus came to life in the latter stages of their Hell is Real Derby with Cincinnati, but the damage had already been done, as they extended their winless run in MLS to seven matches.
The Crew have not scored an MLS goal in the opening 45 minutes since playing to a 2-2 draw with Nashville SC on March 30, which was also the last time they had a lead in the regular season.
Courtois may have contributed to the development of numerous Columbus youngsters, but his counterpart on Wednesday, Wilfried Nancy, deserves a ton of credit for what he did in Montreal, starting out as the academy coach in 2011 before eventually becoming the head coach of the first team for two years and guiding them to their best-ever MLS regular season in 2022.
Since departing Montreal at the end of the 2022 campaign to join the Crew, Nancy has yet to lose to his former side, with his Columbus team eliminating Montreal from playoff contention with a 2-1 victory on the final matchday of the 2023 regular season.
They are unbeaten in their last four away matches in all competitions but are also winless outside Lower.com Field in MLS this season.
Not since the 2022 domestic campaign have they lost a match to CF Montreal, suffering a 2-1 home defeat to them on that occasion when their current coach was in charge of Le CFM.
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Team News
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Josef Martinez was not available for Le CFM over the weekend due to a sore knee, Matias Coccaro is on the long-term injured list with a leg problem and Kwadwo Opoku may be back, having missed a significant amount of time with an ankle ligament tear.
Nathan-Dylan Saliba did not feature last weekend because of a hip issue, Lassi Lappalainen sat out with a minor knock, while Dominik Yankov saw limited action, having sustained a hamstring strain earlier in the campaign.
On Saturday Bryce Duke picked up his first goal of the 2024 domestic season 10 minutes before Jules-Anthony Vilsaint doubled their advantage with his second of the season.
Canadian Mohamed Farsi is nearing a return for Columbus but sat out against Cincy due to a problem in his upper leg, while reserve goalkeeper Evan Bush is still dealing with a wrist injury.
Malte Amundsen, Alexandru Matan and Jacen Russell-Rowe were the only newcomers in the starting 11 this past weekend who did not begin their second-leg victory against Monterrey in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Maximilian Arfsten was the lone Crew member to get his name on the scoresheet versus their Ohio rivals, his first of the 2024 MLS campaign.
CF Montreal possible starting lineup:
Sirois; Campbell, Waterman, Sosa; Ruan, Piette, Choiniere, Lassiter; Duke, Yankov; Ibrahim
Columbus Crew possible starting lineup:
Schulte; Moreira, Camacho, Cheberko; Yeboah, Nagbe, Morris, Zawadzki; Ramirez, Rossi; Hernandez
We say: CF Montreal 1-1 Columbus Crew
Something tells us that Montreal will be extra motivated for this match, not just because of their collapse last weekend, but also to give their current manager an ego boost against their former boss.
That said, the Crew have tremendous resilience and have fared well in intimidating environments all season, which is why we project they will nab a point.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
